1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to vehicle recliner seats and, more specifically, to apparatus for adjustably controlling the position of pivotal components of a vehicle recliner seat.
2. State of the Art
Seats, particularly those employed in vehicles such as automobiles, trucks, etc., are typically constructed with a variety of adjustments, i.e., fore, aft, vertical and/or tilt. In these adjustments, the seat back and seat bottom members of the seat move as a unit. It is also known to provide an adjustment of the seat back member relative to the seat bottom member of a seat. Such an adjustment provides a wide degree of movement of the seat back between a substantially upright position to a more horizontal position such that seats having this type of adjustment are generally referred to as recliner seats.
Such recliner seats include a seat back member which is pivotally connected to the seat bottom frame by a hinge or pivot. A rivet is commonly used to rotatably mount the pivotal seat back member to the surrounding seat bottom frame members. The rivet extends through aligned circular apertures in the seat bottom frame members and the seat back member to rotatably mount the seat back member to the seat bottom frame.
A sector gear is formed at a lower end of the seat back member and engages a drive gear mounted in the seat bottom frame for pivotal movement of the seat back member between a plurality of infinitely selectible positions upon rotation of the drive gear. Another common reclining seat construction utilizes a pawl which releasably engages a tooth in the sector gear to lock the sector gear and the attached seat back in a selected angular position with respect to the seat bottom. A latch release and lock mechanism is coupled to the pawl to selectively disengage the pawl from the sector gear to allow pivotal movement of the seat back relative to the seat bottom and to lockingly engage the pawl with the sector gear to fix the seat back in a selected angular position relative to the seat bottom.
In all of these conventional recliner seat constructions, there exists gear tolerance or slack between the sector gear and the pawl or drive gear. Such gear tolerance results in a slight movement of the seat back with respect to the seat bottom even when the seat back and seat bottom are in a locked position. This movement leads to vibration and noise during operation of the vehicle and an undesirable looseness in the seat which directly affects the quality of the seat. Various mechanisms have been devised to eliminate or reduce such gear tolerance. Such devices use resilient or biasing members to constantly urge the sector gear or pawl into a tight engagement with the opposite member. However, such additional members add to the complexity and cost of the recliner seat.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a recliner seat apparatus which substantially reduces gear tolerance in the seat between a sector gear and a drive or lock member. It would also be desirable to provide a recliner seat apparatus in which gear tolerance is easily and inexpensively reduced or minimized. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a recliner seat apparatus with substantially reduced gear tolerance which does not require significant modification of the seat or the use of additional components.